Sand Harbor
"I'm not too sure what to make of this one. I'm glad there is a marker representing Sand Harbor, but its location bugs me to no end. Wouldn't this one be better placed at the main entrance to Sand Harbor? Or, what about the "Vista Point" just up the road? Most people who visit this grand spectacle enter via the main gate ... not the boat launch. It only makes sense to place a marker at ... a place where people will see it? Beggars can't be choosers I guess." -- August 2007
![[221]](http://www.nv-landmarks.com/Landmark%20Photos/wa/shl221.jpg)
| At the Sand Harbor Boat Launch, 4 miles south of Incline Village |
39.200567, -119.930065Original Date Visited: 8/24/07
Revisited: 3/12/23
Signed: No
Notes: See, common sense would dictate that an historical marker located in such a heavily-visited park (like Sand Harbor) would be placed where people could easily view it: such as the main visitor center or the main parking area. Nope. Instead, the SHPO chose the Boat Launch: a relatively lightly-used area that's frequented primarily by boaters. Plus, without a single sign from the horrendously busy SR 28, what we get is, without question, one of the most difficult markers to locate in the entire state. Here's what you need to do.
- If you're coming from US 50, head north on SR 28 and look for a brown sign that reads "Boats Only" just past the entrance to "Sand Harbor, Visitor Center." This will be approximately 8.2 miles from US 50. This brown sign is incredibly difficult to spot, so try to keep a sharp eye while navigating the narrow confines of SR 28. During the summer months, this task will be triple-fold difficult when you've got traffic jams and mush-brained pedestrians darting across the highway!
- During the summer months of May through August, it will be downright impossible to find a parking spot inside the State Park proper past 8am, especially on the weekends. Instead, try beating the crowds by getting to this one early or late in the day because there is NO PARKING along the highway! State Troopers are camped here all day, every day during the summer, so don't test it. (A friend of mine forgot this rule one late July morning and NHP slapped him with a fine of $642. He had only been parked for ten minutes.) Now, the final step.
- Pass the main entrance into Sand Harbor and turn left onto the tiny paved road into Boat Launch. The marker sits a few yards south of the entrance booth literally right in front of the boat ramp and half-hidden by a spruce tree. Even though you may not be launching a boat, regular cars are allowed to park in here. Though, be warned. If you come here during these summer months the entrance kiosk will be staffed and ready to take your parking fee (which unsurprisingly goes up every year.) To avoid this adamantly tell the ranger you're only here to capture the marker and they should let you in with a strict ten-minute time limit. They aren't as strict here as the folks at Cave Rock!
Street View
Exact Description:
History records Sand Harbor as playing an important role in the operations of the Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company, one of three large combines supplying lumber and cordwood to the Comstock mines during the late 19th century. Walter Scott Hobart organized the company and John Bear Overton was its general manager.
The steamer "Niagara" towed log rafts from company land at the south end of Lake Tahoe to Sand Harbor. Here the logs were loaded on narrow-gauge railway cars and taken two miles north to a sawmill on Mill Creek.
Lumber and cordwood were started on the way to Virginia City via an incline tramway 4,000 feet long, and rising 1,400 feet up the mountainside where the material was transferred to water flumes and transported to Lakeview just north of Carson City.
The tramway has been described as "the Great Incline of the Sierra Nevada."
This one is pay-to-play. The forest completely obstructs this marker's view from SR 28.
COVERED IN MY US 50 ROAD TRIP
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Related Links & Markers:
- 193 - Historic Flume & Lumber Yards
- 225 - Spooner Area ...
- 246 - The Great Incline of the Sierra Nevada
Sand Harbor Unit, Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park (Nevada State Parks)
Searched for Sand Harbor - Nevada State Park
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